Planet Eden
by ThereWillBeBlood
Summary: Shortly after a group of strange people show up all over Canada, a group of teens, namely the former Total Drama-cast, reunite in a bizarre, yet beautiful, unknown world where they are met by their most importantant challenge yet.
1. Prologue

**(NOTE: This story contains strong language, people drinking alcohol and some mild and also **

**some _subtle_ sexuality, forgive my boasting.)**

* * *

**Prologue**

**...  
**

_Chris McLean and Chef Hatchet_

Chris surfaced from the water and looked arround in terror; big and small fiery stones were falling into the ocean as the vulcanic eruption continued on the island. He flinched as he suddenly felt something gnawing on his leg. Not caring what it was, he managed to kick it off.

He started swimming away from the island, not entirely sure wether or not he was going to survive. However, he could see something grey and metallic-looking a few meters ahead of him; it looked almost like a submarine! He swam faster, hoping to get a ride to safety. When he got close to what was indeed a submarine, a hatch opened and his old friend and colleague Chef Hathcet showed up.

"Come on!" yelled Chef, waving his arms and looking around at all the falling boulders of fire. "We gotta get outta here, man!"

Chris reached the submarine and stretched out his arm. Chef grabbed his hand and pulled him into the submarine and closed the hatch. After coughing up some water, Chris said:

"Okay, now what?"

"Well, I'd have loved to see what happened to all the kids up there, but I'm afraid our camera crew _kinda_ went down with the choppers." Chef said.

Chris scoffed.

"Gotta love ash." he said. "So... are they all gonna die now?"

"I think we ordered these, um, 'emergency submarines' for a reason, dude." replied Chef.

"Fine!" said Chris. "What about Alejandro?"

"He's in the sleepin' quarters. We gotta help him as soon as possible!"

"Help him? WHAT?" Chris yelled and crossed his arms. "What are we gonna do? Or Hell, what _can_ we do?"

"I dunno." Chef merely shrugged. "Somethin'."

"But... why?" said Chris.

"Because my father told me to!" yelled Chef.

"Your father? Um, are we thinking about the same 'your father' here? The one who died, like, 20 years ago?"

"Well, I saw him! Okay?" Chef shouted, suddenly furious. "And he wants us to fuckin' help Alejandro! Okay?"

"Whatever you say, man." said Chris, flinching slightly. "So, um, the other kids are gonna be just fine then?"

"They'll be taken home to their mommies and daddies, just like we planned. Remember?" said Chef, who was now suddenly calm. "We're done with those guys, just like you said."

He climbed down a ladder into an open hatchway as Chris heaved a sigh. He sat down, closed his eyes and relaxed. After a few seconds of peace, he heard footsteps.

"Chef?" he said.

No response.

"Chef, is that you?" he said and opened his eyes.

He was startled to see a tall man wearing a suit, complete with a black tie, black leather gloves and one of those silly napkins you put in the chest pocket for some reason. Chris tried to make out the man's face, which was completely impossible due to it being covered by a white square, which appeared to be floating right in front of the man's face.

"Who... who..." stuttered Chris.

"Who are you?" the man said, finishing Chris' sentance. His voice was somewhat low and unemotive.

The white square started flashingin many different colours until it suddenly showed a face that Chris recognized.

"Dad?" he said.

"Alejandro is important to me too, son." said the face of Chris' father. "Help him quickly and I will do the rest."

"Um, dad, uh... I have to..."

"I have to work on my show, dad. I'm sorry." said the face on the screen, finishing another of Chris' sentences for him. "Why don't you trust me anymore?"

Chris shed a tear and closed is eyes. When he opened them again, the man in the suit was gone, as was the face of his father.

* * *

_Bridgette and Geoff_

The two love birds were making out as they arrived at Bridgette's place. Three weeks had passed since they had safely returned home after the adventures of _Total Drama World Tour_, and not once had they been called by any of Chris McLean's associates or even Chris himself. It felt like they could finally go on with their lives.

They collapsed on the couch, Bridgette on top of Geoff. Bridgette was wearing a blue dress and her hair was down; Geoff was missing his favorite hat and he was wearing long pants and a white shirt, which was buttoned - not exactly what any of his friends were used to.

Bridgette kept licking and sucking on his boyfriend's lips and started to unbutton his shirt. Suddenly she stopped, however.

"What..." Geoff said and tried to catch his breath. "What's wrong, babe?"

"Damn it!" muttered Bridgette. "Nature calls. This is my friggin' luck."

She got out of the couch and headed towards the bathroom.

"I'll be waiting right here, babe!" said Geoff.

When Bridgette was gone he looked around as he was lying there in the couch, exhamining Bridgette's living room. This was, after all, the first time he visited Bridgette's home. Nice furniture! Nice TV! Nice living room! Strange; there was a guy in a suit standing in the corner, face hidden by a white square.

"Bridge?" he yelled. "I think I've had way too may drinks! There's a... there's..."

"...a weirdo standing in the corner of the living room." said the weirdo standing in the corner of the living room.

"W- whaaat?" said Geoff.

He squinted. The square now had the face of Geoff's grandmother on it. The figure walked up to Geoff holding a glass of what appeared to be water.

"Have a glass of water, dear." it said; it had Geoff's grandmother's voice so it had to be her.

"Thanks." said Geoff, slightly confused. "Can you, like, go now? I kinda want to be alone with-"

"Sleep." said Geoff's grandmother. "If you love this girl, that's excellent, but you have to sleep."

Geoff took a sip of water and raised his finger, ready to say something else, but he fell asleep before he could.

The face then disappeared from the square and the figure removed the square from his face; it had been hovering in front of him up until now. He was bald and had no eyebrows or facial hair, and looked to be in his early 20's. He picked up his cell phone and moved it to his left ear.

"The drink is fully functional. Soon we will have them all" he said in a calm, low voice. He was quiet for a while. "Yes," he said eventually, "and how is the machine coming along? And what of 6? Is he alive?" A few more seconds of silence. "Excellent."

He didn't notice that Bridgette had come out of the bathroom and was now sneeking uo behind him, ready to beat him over his bald head with a frying pan. When she got close she hit him on the head with it; he didn't even flinch. He slowly turned around, eyelids lowered.

"What have you d-" said Bridgette.

"What have you done?" said the man, simultaneously.

"What's wrong with Ge-"

"...wrong with Geoff?"

"Stop doing that, pl..."

"...doing that! Please?"

He tilted his head left as he said "Please?". He held the glass of water in front of Bridgette's face. She felt as if she was in a trance; she couldn't resist taking a zip of water. She did so and fell to the floor, snoring.

"Send an escort party, please?" said the man. He then hung up.

* * *

_Noah_

Noah sat at his computer in the middle of the night. Everyone else was asleep at this point; his parents, his many siblings, his dog. He was on Facebook and saw that Katie, whom he had met during Total Drama, was online. He decided that he wanted to chat with her, so he wrote:

'hi :)'

He rested his head in his right hand, waiting on a response. He drummed his fingers on the computer desk. All of a sudden, he heard calm, orchestral music playing; it came from inside the room and sounded like it was one of Bach's works. This was rather strange, but Noah didn't care; in fact, he was close to falling asleep.

"Listen." said a voice. "Don't resist. Just sleep!"

Noah fell asleep just as Katie's response popped up:

'hey :D 3'

A bald man wearing a suit looked at the sleeping teen as he pushed some buttons on his cell phone. He moved it to his left ear.

"Five reporting. Music works, just as anticipated. What about the drink?" He was silent for a while. "Good. Has One found the one we truly need yet?" Another pause. "The machine is prepared. So is 6."

He hung up and looked at Noah's computer screen. He looked at the Facebook-chat; Katie had now written:

'hello? :/'

He knew exactly whom he was going to pick up next. He dialed a number on his cell phone, which he then moved to his left ear again.

"Please send a pod. This one is now sleeping."

* * *

_Harold and Leshawna_

The two were on their first real date. Harold had discovered that he and LeShawna were almost neighbours even before they joined Total Drama. They both knew of the nearby restaurant Lobster's House, which is not as fancy or expensive as it may sound but they both liked it, which is why they went there.

After ordering their food, Harold picked up hid cell phone.

"Watcha doin', sugar baby?" said LeShawna and raised an eyebrow.

"You've got to hear this!" he replied. He cleared his throat and prepared to read something from the cell phone. "Think of existence as a tree." LeShawna giggled already. "Each leaf is an Omniverse, the branches are all Multiverses, and the trunk is our Universe, in which we live." He looked at LeShawna. "_You_ are the most beautiful thing in the entire tree."

LeShawna's eyes watered up as she blushed; not visibly, but she did blush.

"Wow, that is the nerdiest, yet most beautiful thing anybody's said to me." she said.

"Definitely nerdiest!" Harold said.

A man wearing a pirate outfit, complete with a fake beard and a wooden parrot showed up, carrying two plates of food.

"Salmon for the lil' lady and oysters for the big, strong man." he said. His pirate-accent was not much to cheer for. "Um, yargh!" he said, instead of the more appreciated 'bon apetit'.

"Always ate the salmon when I was little." said LeShawna.

"Same with me!" said Harold. "Except with the oysters, of course."

The two started enjoying their food. Eventually, Harold started looking around. They were the only ones in the restaurant, apart from a man who sat in a corner, close to a window out to the docks, reading a newspaper. The pirate-waiter walked up to his table and grabbed his plate.

"Did you enjoy that, matey?" he said.

"I enjoyed that. Yes." replied the man. "I do feel rather sorry for the animals, though. They should have enjoyed what time they truly had."

"Uh-huh? Right, matey!"

When the waiter was gone, the man put down the paper, revealing a completely hairless face. He got out of the chair and walked over to Harold and LeShawna.

"I see you are eating sea food." he said.

Harold looked at the man.

"Um, yeah." said Harold. "It's a sea food restaurant."

"Precisely." said the man, tilting his head right, smiling. He brought out a small bottle from his pocket. "I'm trying to sell my own special spice. It tastes best along with sea food. Would you care to try it? I need positive reviews."

Harold and LeShawna looked at each other, unsure.

"Please?" said the man. "A small sample?"

"Um, okay I guess." said Harold.

He seemed friendly, but not too friendly. Thus, none of the two suspected that he wanted to kill them and rape their corpses or something like that. Fortunately, he didn't want that.

The man opened the bottle and poured some of the sauce on one of Harold's shrimps and also on one of LeShawna's. They ate their shrimps and nodded approvingly. Suddenly, however, Harold noticed that LeShawna was falling asleep.

"This..." he said and yawned. "...was stupid of me."

They fell to the floor and the bald man walked back to his table and put 50 dollars on it. He then prepared to make a call on his cell phone.

* * *

_Sierra, Beth and Cody_

After returning safely home after _Total Drama World Tour_ was over, Sierra convinced her parents to move closer to Cody's hometown. It also turned out that Beth's parents had divorced and her mother had coincidentally moved to Cody's hometown. The three had now become close friends and Sierra told them everything about _Total Drama_-forums, websites, wikis and fan fics.

It was around midnight, they were at Sierra's house reading fan-fiction.

"Okay, this one had me L-O-Ling for hours." said Sierra. By now, her hair was finally beginning to grow back.

"But it's just a copy of a John Cleese-sketch." said Cody.

"Okay, how about this one? It's really good, actually. It has spicy sex-scenes between Tyler and..."

"Lindsay?" said Cody. "Sounds hot!"

"No no no, silly." said Sierra. "Tyler and Izzy."

Cody's eyes widened.

"Um... 'kay." he said. "So, who's Lindsay together with in this one?"

"Noah!"

Cody tried to hold back his laughter.

"Re-he-he-mind to... to read that one later on."

"It's not funny, Cody. It's actually really powerful and sad." Sierra said and made a fist close to her chest. "Besides, there are many other fan-pairings to read about. Such as you and Noah."

Cody felt like he was about to throw up as he sat there, schocked and disgusted.

Beth looked over Cody's shoulder.

"Are there any stories about _me_?" she said.

"Quite a few Justin/Beth stories, yeah." said Sierra.

Beth blushed slightly.

"Oh. What about Brady?" she said.

"He's in here too, believe me!" Sierra replied. She looked at her computer screen and her eyes widened. "Oooh, email!"

She went to her inbox and saw 1 new message with the subject: Total Drama.

"I get these _all_ the time." she said and opened the message.

It said: 'Hi, watch this Total Drama Action video I made, please. [attatched video]'

"This should be good." said Beth as Sierra clicked the link.

A video player popped up and covered the entire screen. It started flashing in many colours and the three teens couldn't take their eyes from it.

"What the hell is this?" said Cody.

"I-D-K, Cody." said Sierra.

"Not me, I..." said Beth and yawned. "...I do not decay! G..." She yawned again. "Get it?"

They all started to feel rather sleepy. Soon enough, they _were_ asleep.

* * *

_Eva, Duncan and Courtney_

The three of them all lived in the suburbs, so after all the crazy _Total Drama World Tour_-stuff had passed them by, Eva decided to make friends with the only really cool and tough people she had met during the show. Eva's idea of making friends is inviting them to go to the gym with her.

It was the only gym in town to be open late, that is because Eva's dad owned the gym and so she could go there whenever she felt like it, and take friends with her, which hadn't happened until that night.

Duncan was sitting on the floor next to two large dumbells, panting. Courtney was still lifting hers up and down, though. They were both wearing white training outfits, similar to Eva's blue one.

"Don't be such a wimp, Duncan!" said Courtney. "You're supposed to be my strong protector!"

Gwen had re-discovered her love for Trent, and so she left Duncan who had no where else to go but back to being with Courtney. So far, it had actually worked well for them.

"Hey, I like working out and all." said Duncan. "But _this_ is insane, dude!"

"Don't listen to her, Courtney." said Eva, who was keeping herself busy with a barbell. "He's just letting us win 'cause we're chicks."

"Oh really?" said Courtney.

"Fine. Whatever!" said Duncan, wiping some sweat of his forehead. "As long as I get a fucking break already!"

Eva chuckled.

A male voice was suddenly heard:

"Excuse me."

Eva put her barbell down. She knew that no one else was in the hall but the three of them, but despite this fact she saw a bald man wearing a black suit and a grey fedora standing 4 metres away from her.

"Hey you! How'd you get in here?" she yelled.

"Is your name Eva?" he said and tilted his head right as he looked at her.

Eva shrugged and said:

"Yeah?"

The man looked at Courtney.

"You are Courtney." he said.

A confused Courntey nodded.

"And you must be Duncan?" he said and looked at Duncan.

"Mind telling us who _you_ are now?" said Duncan.

"I have watched the show _Total Drama Island_ and I'm quite a fan of you. I am honored to finally meet you." He didn't exactly sound excited about meeting celebrities, at least not in Courtney's opinion; he spoke with a calm voice and sounded rather disinterested. "May I shake your hand?" he said, and removed the glove from his right hand.

"Okay, pal. Time to fucking beat it!" said an annoyed Eva who grabbed the man by the neck.

Eva froze. Without reacting to Eva's touch, the man hushed. Eva fell to the ground, snoring loudly. The man looked at Duncan and Courtney. They looked back at him until he started walking towards them.

They started running towards the exit but as soon as they reached the door another man came through the door. He was also wearing a suit but his head was completely obscured by a big, white square. As the two teens stopped running, the square started flashing and it kept doing that for 8 seconds until they fell asleep and collapsed to the floor. As they lied on the floor, sleeping, the first man walked up to his companion.

"Imagine how horrible this must be for them." he said.

The man with the square replied:

"Or how horrible things will soon _become_. I am afriad we have no choice." He removed the square from his face. He too was bald and without eyebrows. "We must escort these to the machine quickly. We have little time."

* * *

_Katie and Sadie_

Katie and Sadie, the very best of best friends, were together in Katies room, sitting on her pink, fluffy bed, talking about what they always talk about: boys they view as insanely cute.

Their conversation was interrupted as Katie heard that someone wanted to chat with her on Facebook. She lied down by her laptop which was also on her bed.

"Who is it? Who is it?" said an excited Sadie.

"It's Noah!" said Katie.

"Oh! This is gonna be so totally great!" yelled Sadie. "Write something back... with a heart at the end!"

The two squealed for two seconds. Finally, Katie wrote a reply:

'hey :D 3'

They waited a few minutes for Noah to write something else. He never did. Katie wrote 'hello? :/' but got nothing back. The two decided to leave it alone and went on talking for about an hour. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"Dad? Is that you?" said Katie.

No answer. The person knocked the door again, faster this time. Katie sighed and went to get it; she opened the door and was startled to see a six-foot tall bald man in a suit standing there. He was holding a boom box in his right hand.

"Uh... h-h-hello?" said Katie. "Where's d- where's dad?"

"He's sleeping." replied the man.

* * *

_Owen, Izzy, Heather, DJ, Trent, Gwen, Tyler, Lindsay and Justin_

Geoff and Bridgette had gone home, Harold and LeShawna were dating, Eva was busy working out with Duncan and Courtney, Noah was busy and Sierra, Cody, Beth, Katie and Sadie were all living too far away. Everyone else – Izzy, Heather, DJ, Trent, Gwen, Tyler, Lindsay and Justin – were all at Owen's place partying.

Loud music was playing, lights were flashing, snacks were either in bowls on a long table or on the floor next to empty beer bottles/cans; it was one heck of a party, to put it simply.

Justin and DJ were dancing next to each other.

"I can't believe that _I_ am feeling lonely right now!" said Justin. "I'm the hottest guy in the room and all the girls have boyfriends already. Lousy luck!"

"Heather's still single." DJ said and winked.

"Hey! Don't even go there!" yelled Heather, who was sitting in a chair, reading a gossip magazine.

"Oh sorry, I forgot!" said Justin. He chuckled. "You're already taken by Alejandro."

"I am not!" Heather shouted and crossed her arms. "He's probably dead, anyways!"

Meanwhile, Lindsay and Tyler were making out on Owen's couch, and as one might have figured out, Tyler was unable to keep his hands from going to 'inappropriate' places. This didn't seem to bother Lindsay, though.

"Woohoo!" yelled Owen. "Man, was this a good idea, or what?"

"Hell yeah!" shouted Izzy. "I can't believe Geoff's gone home already!"

"I can!" said Owen, wiggling his eyebrows. "He took Bridgette with him."

Izzy jumped up on Owen's shoulders holding a can of beer.

"Don't talk like that, man! I'm getting too excited now!" she yelled and eventually fell down.

"Oh, Izzy. Don't you know?" said Owen, as Izzy lied on the floor, finishing her can. "There is no such thing as too excited!"

Trent and Gwen had poured some beer into two martini-glasses they had found in Owen's kitchen, where they were now sitting on stools next to the sink; they felt like they could be left alone in there as the living room was turning into a madhouse. As they looked lovingly into each others eyes, they clinked their glasses.

"Cheers." they both said, simutaneously.

Gwen giggled as she took a sip out of Trent's glass and he took a sip out of her glass. They put their glasses on the sink, looked at each other for a while and eventually closed their eyes and kissed. After the kiss, which lastet for about 8 seconds, Gwen caressed Trent's cheeks.

"What's that smell?" she said, suddenly. Trent closed his eyes. "Trent? T-Trent?... What a lovely smell..." Gwen fell asleep.

Out in the living room the music suddenly stopped; Tyler and Lindsay lost their focus on what they were _about_ to do in Owen's couch, Izzy and Owen looked around, confused, as did DJ, Justin and Heather.

"Hey! What the hell is going on?" yelled Owen.

Suddenly, he noticed that everyone else had fallen asleep.

"Guys?" he said. "Guys?"

"Do you feel that smell?" said a man who was now, all of a sudden, standing behind Owen.

Owen turned around. The man was wearing a suit and a grey fedora; he appeared to be bald.

"Um... who- who are you?" said Owen.

"Do you have a cold?" said the man.

"Uh, yeah." Owen said and snorted. He then fell to the floor, snoring loudly.

The man brought out his cell phone and held it against his right ear.

"Three reporting. We are now finished." he said into the phone. "It is time to move on to the main experiment... Prepare the machine... please."

He hung up.

* * *

**END OF CHAPTER**

**...  
**

**So there you have it; the beginning of my new story.**

**This story is something that has existed in my head since I started working on**

**_The Smell of Pink_, and I'm happy to get it started.**

**When will I post new chapters? We'll see what happens.**

**Either I get obsessed with continuing this, I finish _The Smell of Pink_ first, or**

**I simply work on the two stories back-to-back, unless**

**I am too lazy for that. ;)**

**...  
**

**And YES, when I wrote the agent-people into this story, I heavily**

**based them on the Observers from _Fringe_. Yes, I'm a nerd, live with it, guys. ;)**


	2. Chapter 1: In The Beginning

**In The Beginning**

**...**

_The Past_

_

* * *

_

A young boy hopped out of his parents' car on a drafty grey day. Alejandro was his name and he was on vacation to Canada with his parents and his older brother José. His Canadian step-father had been meaning to show them all his homeland for a while. It was very cold and dull outside – no one else was present when they had reached the Niagara Falls. Little Alejandro ran over to the railing, which was wet from rain, and looked at the astonishing waterfall; José walked up to him.

"Ya like it?" he said.

"Yeah?" said Alejandro; José scoffed.

"That's cool." He looked back at his parents' car; they were still talking to each other, not paying attention to their children.

"Hey, Al!" he then said, grabbing his brother by the shirt. "I, uh, kinda caught you reading some of my _very_ interesting books about psychology and, uuuh, the ability to manipulate others. Does _any _of this ring a bell, Al?"

"Um, n-no?" said Alejandro, his voice trembling.

"You sure?" said José. "'Cuz I'm not mad or anything. I'm _not_! Unless you drew, like, pictures in it?"

"No."

José gave Alejandro a shoulder pat.

"Hey, wanna try out something that's _really_ fun?" said José. "You know how we can take a closer look at the falls, huh?"

"How?"

"Let me show you, little guy!"

José put his arms under his brother's shoulders, lifting him over the railing. Alejandro closed his eyes, fearing the worst, but when he opened them they got as big as saucers. The waterfall looked even more amazing when there was no stupid railing obscuring his vision. He let out a "Wow!" and looked at his big brother.

"Thanks José!"

"No problem, Al. Now, try to hold on to the railing, okay?" Alejandro felt that José was letting go of him; he closed his eyes again. "I'm gonna let go, and you're gonna hold yourself up! You here me? Hold _yourself_ up!"

Alejandro grabbed on to the slippery railing with his left hand. He opened his eyes and smiled.

"Wow! I guess I am as strong as you, José! I am."

"Yeah," said José and sighed, "you sure are!" He removed his hands from Alejandro's armpits.

Alejandro found that there was nothing underneath his feet and that the railing he had grabbed onto was more slippery than he thought. He hung from the railing in panic, feeling that he was loosing his grip. He saw José waving at him, and then he started running towards their parents. Alejandro gasped and lost his grip of the railing.

When José reached the car, he was doing a very convincing faux cry.

"Mommy? Mo-ho-ommy?"

"What, José? What is it?" she replied.

"It was te-terrible!" José collapsed on the ground, sobbing. His parents were about to disvover something terrible.

* * *

_The Headquarters_

Cody woke up.

When his eyes finally got used to the darkness he could make out that he was lying inside some sort of coffin, which appeared to be black and cylinder shaped. Too confused to do anything, he closed his eyes, hoping that he would wake up again to find out that it had all been a dream. He had no such luck.

He began to feel a tad claustrophobic and he could sense that the panic was coming to him. He began panting and sweating, making useless attempts to open the thing he was trapped within; he simply couldn't! Suddenly, he could hear voices speaking; he lied still and tried to listen closely to them, but he could not make out any sentences, only certain words. He was startled as a black sheet was suddenly removed from above the coffin, revealing it to have been made of glass, and not something black.

He saw a tall bald man in a suit looking over him as a he felt a smell he had never felt before enter the coffin. Whatever the smell really _was_, it made him go back to sleep.

* * *

_Another World_

Bridgette was having a pleasant dream. From what she could gather, she was on a road trip with Trent, Gwen and the love of her life, Geoff on a sunny day. They were on top of a hill near the ocean. Bridgette was sitting on a bench by a big tree, Trent and Gwen were sitting on one of the branches, watching the sea, and Geoff was standing near the steep part of the hill, facing the ocean. He held his strong arms out; the wind was blowing right on him, causing his pink unbuttoned shirt to flutter and his cowboy hat to fly off his head and land in Bridgette's face.

"Geoff! I'm trying to enjoy the view." said Bridgette, putting the hat on the bench.

"Oh, I'm sorry! You can't _see_ me?" said Geoff, grinning at her.

"Really clever there, Geoff." Bridgette replied, rolling her eyes.

"I know." shouted Geoff.

Bridgette shook her head and lied down on the bench, watching the leaves on the tree as they wiggled in the wind, as did their shadows in Bridgette's face. She noticed that Trent and Gwen were no longer sitting on the branch, but floating in the air next to each other, a few feet away from the tree. Bridgette turned her head towards Geoff who was hovering towards her. He grabbed her hand and the two flew up above the tree branches together. Eventually they started kissing in mid-air.

It was a very pleasant dream, and it would be the last time in a while that Bridgette felt pleased.

Suddenly, the dream was over, at which point Bridgette found herself lying in tall, brownish grass; the blue sky above her and the grass waving in the breeze was all she could make out. She also noticed that she was wearing a skin-tight, grey spandex-uniform, rather than her usual clothes. She closed her eyes and grunted, not bothering to even ask what the hell is going on!

When she opened her eyes, LeShawna was standing over her, also wearing grey tights.

"You okay, hun?" she said.

"I guess," said Bridgette, "but I'd love to know just where the hell I am and _why_!"

"Not even a clue. We gotta see if anybody else is here." She helped Bridgette on her feet and the two looked around. Beth emerged from the tall grass, eventually, also wearing one of those tight uniforms. She still had her glasses, though, and, like the other two, she had her usual haircut – the side ponytail.

"W-what is this?" she stuttered. She looked around. There was nothing, aside from Bridgette and LeShawna, around her but tall grass, and only some bushes and trees, for miles upon miles and some beautiful blue-white mountains in the distance, seemingly surrounding the gigantic field, as did a green forest, which looked like a thin line of moss on the bottom of the majestic chain of mountains. Next to her, Lindsay got up.

"Aw, this costume makes my tummy look fat!" she whined. She still had her bandana, but all her other closed had been replaced with a uniform.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?" shouted Eva, who just then showed up, wearing what the rest of them were wearing. "Or, fuck, why am _I _here?"

"Well it warms my heart to see _you_ again!" said LeShawna, rolling her eyes.

"Huh. Looks to me like _all_ the girls of Total Drama are here right now." said Beth, as Izzy, Courtney, Katie, Sadie, Heather, Gwen and Sierra approached the group.

"Hey, girls!" yelled Sierra, not seeming as worried as she should. "Hey, did you guys notice this, like, über-crazy place? What do you guys think it_ is_, huh? And why are we wearing tight, grey, yucky clothes?"

"Well, now that we're all gathered I guess we can start _guessing_, or somethin'." said LeShawna.

"I think we should start by hunting for food!" yelled Izzy.

"Shut up, crazy girl!" said Heather. "Now, first of all, is there anybody here except us girls?"

"Why don't we explore and find out?" said Courtney.

"Ssh!" said Izzy suddenly. "D-do you guys hear that?"

The others listened closely; they couldn't hear much at first but soon it occured to them that someone was shouting in the distance.

"This way, gang!" Izzy yelled and started running towards the voices.

The other girls followed her until they all reached something perculiar that blocked their path; it was almost like a force-field, preventing them from going any further. It looked like a red, transparent curtain – not at all unlike _aurora borealis_ - which the girls examined and burned themselves on when trying to touch it; this absurd "wall" was too high for them to jump over and too wide to get around, it seemed. They were all extremely confused at this point.

"Any one besides me who'd love to know what _this_ thing is?" said Courtney.

"Kinda looks like one of those things Norway has in the sky, doesn't it?" said Sadie.

"Oh yeah, totally!" said Katie, nodding.

"That's cute, girls, but what friggin' _is_ it?" said Eva.

"That is one _excellent_ question!" Courtney replied, scratching her thigh – the spandex was quite uncomfortable.

On the other side of this barrier, they could see the guys approaching. Duncan, Justin, Geoff, Trent, Tyler, Harold, Owen, Noah, DJ and Cody; they were all there, all wearing grey, tight spandex, just like the females.

"Hey!" yelled Duncan. "We're here!"

"Duncan?" said Courtney. She looked if there was away for her to reach her boyfriend. "Honey, you can't come over here. There's... there's no way over or around this thing!"

The guys began exhamining the curtain which kept them from going to the girls.

"What exactly _is_ this 'thing'?" said Noah.

"Your guess is as good as mine." said LeShawna. "Don't touch it, though! That hurts."

"Splendid!" said Noah, rolling his eyes.

"Y'know, it's actually a pleaseure to see some of you guys again." LeShawna added.

Owen chuckled. "Yeah, it's been long!"

"This is heart-warmimg but maybe we should try working out where we are?" said Harold.

"Sounds like a plan." said Cody.

He sighed and put his hands on his hips, looking around to see if the place in any way looked familiar to him. He eventually said:

"Maybe we're somewhere in Europe, you know? Maybe there's just a secret field up in some mountain range."

"Even if that was _plausible_, it would be colder up here for that to be true." said Noah. "I know the mountains of the Earth; I know no huge fields between any of 'em!"

Harold cleared his throat and said:

"I don't know about you guys, but I don't know _any_ place on _Earth_ that looks like this!"

The others looked at him.

"Are you seriously saying..." Noah began.

"Well... _could_ be!" said Harold.

"W-wait... You think it's possible that we are on another _planet_?" said Duncan.

"Maybe even in another part of the galaxy, or even another galaxy! Do you know any planet with a breathable atmosphere near our solar system?"

"No, I'm not _into_ that shit!"

"Right," Harold said, "but anyways, do any of you guys know any place on our planet that looks like this? Y'know, a huge field surrounded by mountains?"

"I dunno." said LeShawna, shrugging.

"Me neither." said Courtney.

"Guys, this really aint funny!" said DJ. "I- I gotta get home to mama. I- I can't be in _space_! I gotta get home."

He was clearly beginning to panic so Geoff walked over to him to calm him down a bit; he gave his friend a pat on the back.

"Don't worry, dude." he said. "We're about to figure out why we're here, okay? Then we might figure out how to get ourselves home!"

"Ya think so, man?" said DJ.

"Yeah, I_ know _so!"

"So," said Courtney, "we were all asleep when we arrived here, right? Okay, does anyone remember what they did before falling asleep?"

"Hmm. Not much." said Justin, stroking his chin. "I remember being at a party that Owen invited me to!"

"Oh yeah, that was awesome!" yelled Owen.

Justin glanced at the big oaf.

"Not the best time, dude."

Owen crossed his arms and looked ashamed. They were all quiet for a while, and sat down on the ground, pondering, except for Heather, who didn't want to sit on the dirty ground.

"Hey Katie," said Sadie, suddenly, "wasn't there, like, some bald guy coming into your room?"

They caught the others' attention.

"Come again?" said Cody.

"Yeah, there _was_ a bald man in my room." said Katie. "That's, like, the last thing _I _remember! He made me go to sleep with his music."

"Um, this bald guy," said Eva. "did he have, uh, no eyebrows?"

"Yeah." said Katie, shrugging.

"Um, 'kay. Did anyone else see this guy?"

Harold walked as close to the light-wall as he could.

"Hey LeShawna," he said, "didn't we see some bald-headed dude when we were at that restaurant? I'm pretty sure that's where he made us fall asleep."

LeShawna's eyes widened.

"Oh. My God!" she said. "You're right!" She looked around at all her companions. "I think we were kidnapped by the same guy!"

"Probably! I saw him too." said Geoff.

"Damn it, who _is_ he?" said Noah.

Suddenly, Duncan spoke up.

"There's more than one!" he said, gaining everyone's attention. They began chattering, uttering words such as 'What?' and 'More?' until Duncan kept talking. "Courtney and I saw two guys. One of them made Eva fall asleep, another stopped Courtney and me from escaping, but he had this weird... um... flashing screen over his face!" Duncan held his hands in front of his face when describing the screen.

"Slow down a bit." said Sierra. "Did that make you loose conciousness? Because my computer screen started flashing and that's what made _me_ fall asleep."

"Okay okay!" yelled an impatient Heather. "We get it, we were all kidnapped by weird bald guys! Now, does _anyone_ have a guess as to exactly _who_ they are and _what_ the hell they want?"

"Even if they're aliens," said Harold, "I don't see why they would want to put us on some random planet, _if_ that's what this is!"

"I'm worried about the food supply." said Owen, rubbing his big tummy.

"Actually, 'lunch box' here has a point." said Noah. "We might end up staying here for a long time, if we don't starve to death, I mean!"

Katie and Sadie held each other tight and gasped.

"I don't wanna _starve_!" they both said.

"Me neither." said Lindsay.

"Calm down, all of you!" said Tyler, who got close to the light-wall to talk with Lindsay. "Linds, it's gonna be alright, we'll find food and we will get_ through_ this." LeShawna walked over to Lindsay and put her arm around her shoulders.

"Just like we got through Total Drama together, hun." said LeShawna. Just then, Duncan got up from the ground within the blink of an eye.

"A-ha!" he shouted. "Of course! LeShawna, you hit the nail on the friggin' head!"

"What is it, sweetie?" said Courtney.

"Don't you get it? Chris did this!" Some of the others gasped upon realising that this may very well be true, others glanced at each other, unsure. "He wanted us to _believe_ that it was all over after season 3, that's why we haven't heard from him for months! But after waiting long enough, he'd _strike_!"

"Strangely, this makes sense." said Courtney, scratching the back of her neck. "I mean, who honsestly thought Chris was bored with us? Who thought he was through torturing us?"

"Actually, what _I_ thought was that he died when Hawaii fucking _exploded_ on him!" said Eva.

"Interesting theory." said Noah.

"Maybe we should try looking for cameras? There might be one in that tree over there." said Sierra, pointing towards a big tall tree on the 'girl-side' of the field. "Or in that one!" She pointed at another big tree on the other side of the light-wall.

"What, we're just going to agree Chris is the reason we're here?" said Cody.

"Got any better theories?" said Heather.

"No, but additional questions. If Chris is behind this, who are those guys he hired? Why did he hire them? Also, what are the origins of _this_ thing? How did Chris create it?" He gestured at the light-wall. "And why has he taken our clothes, but not our bandanas, piercings or glasses? And _why_ in the name of Zeus' butthole would Chris make a _show_ about a bunch of confused teens on an unknown planet?"

No one said anything when Cody was finished.

"Uh, which one of those questions should we think about _first_?" said Noah.

"All of 'em." said DJ. "Really, y'all, would Chris do something like _this_? He'd torture us, sure, but this just don't seem very Chris-like."

"He's just being creative!" said Duncan, still completely sure Chris was the man responsible.

DJ didn't say anything, instead he just walked over to the nearby tree and leaned against it. He thought it was strange that he didn't feel more worried about ever seeing his family again; it was something about the place and its beauty that kept DJ calm.

"You know," he said finally, "this isn't... that bad!" The others looked in his direction. "This place is pretty lovely. Maybe it won't be so bad if we stick around for a while, huh?"

"Are you okay, man?" said Trent.

"Yeah." said DJ. "Fine!"

"He's... kinda right." said Gwen, who then lied down in the tall grass. "This place is... peaceful, actually. It's not like we're in the middle of the desert or in the artic, right?" The others, instead of answering, exchanged glances. "It's nice here. It's warm. It's... friendly."

"Something about this smells weird." Izzy whispered in Eva's ear. "Smells like shrimps with ketchup."

"Uh-huh?" said Eva. She yawned. "Y'know, they're both right. This doesn't seem all that horrible!" She too lied down in the grass. Katie, Sadie, Beth and Lindsay walked over to the big tree on their side of the light-wall, where they sat down to rest.

"What's going on?" said Bridgette. "We're giving up? We're- we're calling this our new _home_ now?"

"Until we get some of our questions answered, I suppose." said Courtney.

"But... but where's the_ food_ and- and the _shelter_?" Bridgette was clearly getting worked up. "And... and... Geoff!" She walked over to the light-wall holding out her hands. When she made contact with it she screamed as she burned her palms on it. She fell to the ground, clenching her hands.

"Bridge?" yelled Geoff. "Listen to me, it will be fine, okay? I swear, I will find away to... to get through past this wall, okay."

"O...okay!" said Bridgette, still angry.

LeShawna escorted her to the tree where they both sat down, getting ready for some rest. The other girls were either napping in the grass or sitting down by the tree, sleeping – same with the guys on the other side of the wall; some were lying in the tall grass, while the rest were resting near the tree.

Bridgette sighed and thought that she might as well sleep too; she wasn't tired so it seemed pointless, but everyone else seemingly wanted to rest, so she decided to try and get some sleep anyways.

Soon enough, she had calmed herself down, at which point she actually noticed that Gwen and DJ were right. The place looked beautiful and inviting somehow. How bad could it be? Maybe she'll meet her boyfriend in another dream? Maybe she should just get some rest?

* * *

_The Past_

His mother and Canadian step-father stayed at the Niagara Falls, talking to the police and trying to tell them what terrible thing had just happened there; his mother couldn't stop sobbing so his step-father had to do most of the talking. Eventually, after asking some qustions, the cops at last started searching for Alejandro, or what remained of him, in the rough water below the astonishing water-fall.

José was sitting in his step-grandfather's car – his step-father had called him and asked that he would come pick José up and watch over him over night, whilst he remaineded at the Niagara Falls with Josés mother, hoping, _praying_ that the cops would find Alejandro unharmed, or at least alive. Josés step-grandfather, his name was Ben, was playing some old sixties-music on his radio, whilst José sat in the back seat, leaning his tired head on the window. Ben had been silent up until this moment.

"What exactly happened, eh?" he asked. José raised his head. "Did you see it, boy?"

"I... I don't really know." said José. "It... happened so fast!"

Ben sighed. "I understand." he said. "Too bad, I really wanted to meet him, ya know. I'm really sorry."

José sighed too. "Yeah... me too."

"He could have grown up into something great." said Ben.

"Mm-hmm." replied José.

He leaned his head on the window again, listening to the calming music, looking out at the people, trees and buildings they drove by. He wasn't really paying close attention to any of them, until one man in particular, for some reason, caught Josés full attention. A tall, bald-headed eyebrow-less man with a grey fedora hat and a black suit was standing on the sidewalk near a pedestrian crossing; the man was staring into Ben's car, completely focused on José. José felt that this man knew the truth about Alejandro.

Ben had to stop the car at this point, because the traffic light had turned red. The bald man walked across the street, slowly, looking angrily at José all the way. This didn't seem to bother Ben in the slightest; he just waved politely at the man. Soon the light went green and Ben began driving again. By now, José felt extremely uncomfortable.

* * *

**END OF CHAPTER**

**…**

**Yeah, I'm continuing it! Yay. ;)**


	3. Chapter 2: Father

**(Yes, I got obsessed with this story. Shame on me, I suppose! Oh well, **

**I hope _you_ guys don't mind reading more of this.)**

**

* * *

**

**FATHER**

**…**

_Chris McLean and Chef Hatchet_

One of them "hookah"-smoking devices, a hot jacuzzi and one of his favorite magazines; this was just how Chris McLean loved it, usually. At this point he wasn't really enjoying the magazine or the hookah, but instead lying in the jacuzzi to think. What to do now? Was he going to try and keep making new episodes of _Total Drama_, or was he going to move on now that the original cast of _Total Drama_ had been reported missing? He thought, maybe he should go on a vacaion or something? Sounds just about right.

Chris had people answering countless phone calls for him, most of which concerned the whereabouts of the _Total Drama_-cast. Chris refused to answer those, himself, and he also refused to do any more interviews; he had already done one where he explained that he honestly had no idea what had happened to Canada's most beloved group of teenagers, but clearly people still suspected that he was somehow responsible for them vanishing. He hadn't worked on a new show in a long time, but all the whining from concerned fans was enough for him to desire a trip to Lanzarote.

He went to his room and started packing a few bags, which lied open on his big, dark-blue bed as he put some stuff that he could never ever survive without in them, such as a hair-dryer and some expensive perfume. Eventually, the door to his room opened and Chef Hatchet entered.

"Yo Chris." he said. "I got a new idea for a reality show. Tell me what ya thi..." He interrupted himself as he saw that Chris was clearly preparing to go somewhere. "W- wait, where you _goin_´?"

"Me?" said Chris. He straightened his back, turned towards Chef and shrugged . "Well, uh, I'm kind of going on vacation. Haven't really got any new ideas, don't really want to stay here where people bitch about those lost kids I had on _Total Drama_, I just need to go somewhere, is all."

He turned back towards his bed and continued to put things in his bags. He then glanced at Chef, who was standing in the doorway, arms crossed.

"You, um, you can go home if you want, dude. We're kinda done." he said.

Chef sighed and walked slowly into the room.

"I... I ain't _got_ no home, Chris." he said.

"What?" replied Chris.

"All these years," Chef continued, "we've worked on all these shows, I've had nowhere to go."

He sat down on Chris' bed; after some hesitation, Chris did the same.

"Dude, you've got money." said Chris. "I can get why you don't wanna go home to your mom or anything, but you could buy yourself a nice house by the sea, y'know, where you can watch the moon rise or maybe the sun set... and stuff."

"I can," said Chef, "I should!" He looked at Chris, looking more depressed than Chris had ever seen him. "I just don't _wanna_."

Chris jumped up from the bed and took a few steps back.

"Whoa! I'm sorry, dude, but that's just not how I roll!" he said.

"I ain't gay, Chris!" yelled Chef. "It's just that..." He scratched the back of his neck. "You're like a brother to me, and, uh... you're kinda the only family I have. I haven't heard from mama in, like, 4 years. Maybe 5."

Chef looked at the floor in silence and Chris wasn't sure what to say, so he just sighed and scratched the back of his own head.

"Well, what do you say we go to Lanzarote together?" he said, finally.

Chef looked at Chris, now smiling.

"Sounds good," he said, "I'll, uh... I'll just go get some stuff together."

"Okay." said Chris as Chef was about to exit the room, but Chris had to stop him when something hit him. "W-wait a second, Chef!"

Chef turned around to face Chris.

"What?" he said.

"What about your dad?" said Chris; Chef looked around in confusion, without responding. Chris continued: "3 weeks ago, when we escaped from Hawaii, you told me that your father had told you to go rescue Alejandro."

"B-but... my dad's been dead for, like, 20 years."

"Yeah, I know! But you still said that your _dad_ told you to go help Alejandro, and then..." Chris stopped and scratched his head. "...and then... _my_ dad came back!"

"What?" yelled Chef.

"Yeah, my dad made me do something to Alejandro. He was... he was..." Chris chuckled. "He was gonna be the Drama Machine in season 4 of _Total Drama_."

The two friends stared at each other, both feeling rather funny. Apparently, they had both seen their deceased fathers in a place where they would never expect to run into _any_ of their relatives, especially not Chef, who no longer knew any of his relatives. Had they seen ghosts or were they both temporarily insane during the vulcanic eruption? Either way, it did not exactly make any sense to them. Two strong men, both wearing black t-shirts and shades – they were quite obviously bodyguards – entered the room, suddenly, interrupting Chris and Chef's moment of extreme confusion.

"Mr. McLean." said one of them. "There's a crazy guy outside who wants to talk to ya. He refuses to get the fuck out of here!"

"He claims to know one of the lost teens." said the other. "He says his name is Norbert McGrady."

* * *

_The Planet_

When Noah woke up from his nap, the weather was different. The sky was no longer blue; it was completely hidden behind fluffy white-grey clouds that hovered silently and slowly over the landscape in the breeze. It was a lot colder now, also. He got up and stretched his arms. He looked around to see if anyone else was awake; on the boy-side, this did not appear to be the case, so he went for a walk, because he found the weather rather pleasant and also because he wanted to see if everyone on the girl-side was still sleeping.

Through the red transparent curtain, which was still seperating the girls from the boys, he could see that almost everbody was still asleep, the exception being Katie. She was sitting on one of the lowest branches of the big tree on their side, watching the clouds as they passed over the big field.

"Hi Katie." said Noah.

Katie looked at him, looking sad at first, but smiled once she saw who was calling her name.

"Noah?" she said.

"That's my name." Noah replied, shrugging. "Well, uh, what do you think?"

"About what?"

"This." Noah extended his arms. "This place, do you think it's another planet or another of Chris' twisted ways to please himself?"

Katie lied down on the thick branch, resting her head against the trunk.

"I really don't know, like, what to think." she said. "It all seems so unreal and... well, I kinda can't stop feeling that I'm_ dreaming_ all this. It's like... um... it's like I know I'll eventually to wake up."

Noah chuckled; this all sounded unusually deep, coming from someone like Katie.

"And because of that," she continued, "I don't feel afraid, because... I'm not really here. I'm in my bed at home, and another day in the mall with Sadie and cute boys awaits me." She made eye contact with Noah. "What do you think of that, huh?"

"So, you think this is all in _your_ head?" said Noah; Katie giggled as a response. "I gotta say, you're a deeper thinker than I thought. No offense but I kind of assumed you were the kind of person that does most of her pondering about wether or not the light in the _fridge_ is still on when you close it."

Katie burst out laughing after hearing this. She went on for about ten seconds – Noah chuckled along for a bit – until she calmed herself down.

"Again, no offesne" said Noah.

"No no! None taken." said Katie. "You're _so _hilarious."

"Well, it's good to hear that you're having a fun time." said Noah.

Katie closed her eyes and Noah heaved a happy sigh, as he felt really warm and somewhat tingly on the inside. The feeling disappeared however as he saw that a small hole suddenly opened on the curtain, right in front of him, and then closed itself, all within one second. The curtain made a weird noise, sounding to Noah like the noise whales apparently make; it was almost as if the hole that briefly appeared was the curtain's mouth!

"Did you _see _that?" said Noah, feeling a bit spooked.

"I _heard_ something." replied Katie. She climbed down from the tree. "Sounded like a whale, almost, didn't it?"

"Yeah, for a split second." said Noah.

"What was it you saw?"

Noah shook his head.

"I don't know, but I think we should pay closer attention to this wall." he said and walked back towards the tree, where the other boys were waking up.

"Ugh!" grunted Owen. "I never thought I'd get enough of sleeping."

"You _wouldn't_ have gotten enough sleep if you weren't _here _right now, man!" said Duncan. "You know why? Because back home you've got your parents dragging you out of bed, every frickin' morning!"

"I should've seen that coming." said Noah. "All the guys are alone from both their girlfriends and family, and the first thing they think of doing is party!"

"Oh, come on! I didn't say _that_." said Duncan.

"I think he has a point, though." said Geoff. "Too bad we have _nothing_ that is needed to throw a huge party!"

"I'm sure you'd have been able to think of _something._" replied Noah.

"Look guys," said Harold, "we really should start by trying to figure out why we're here, if we are actually here for _any_ reason whatsoever. Even if I wanted to 'party'," he made so-called 'air quotes', "what kind of party would that be? I mean, what do we actually have besides, well, wood and grass?"

"Not a whole lot, I guess." said Geoff. He put his hands on his hips and looked around for a while; he then gestured towards some of the mountains. "Maybe there is _something_ else behind those mountains? Anybody feel like climbing 'em?"

"Can't say I do." replied Noah.

"I definitely think we should do some exploring, anyhow." said Harold, as he got up from the ground. "Who wants to come with me?"

"Me!" said Geoff. "I wanna know what's the deal with this place!"

Geoff, Duncan, Harold, Noah and Owen all agreed to go for a walk and explore the giant field; perhaps answers awaited them somewhere out there, hidden by who- or whatever had brought them there? Harold waved at the others, who were sitting by the big tree.

"Hey guys," he shouted, "we're gonna go do some exploring! Anybody feel like joining?"

"No, you guys have fun!" replied Cody, who waved at them from one of the tree-branches.

The five of them started walking away from Cody, Trent, Justin and Tyler. At this point, Cody noticed that DJ was missing. Or rather, he was sitting at six o'clock, so that Cody did not at first see him. Eventually, Cody did see him, sitting near the tree; he was sobbing. Cody quickly climbed down and sat down next to him.

"Hey man, what's wrong?" he said. DJ wiped his eyes with his thumb; he then responded:

"I... miss my momma. W- what if we never can go home?"

He moved his knees closer to his head and buried his face in his arms. Cody held his arm around DJ, attempting to comfort him.

"Hey, hey! You- you don't seriously think we'll be stuck here forever, do ya?"

"I... I don't know!" said DJ.

"Look dude, the other guys are out exploring now, okay? They're gonna find out what this place is and then we go home!"

"That's the fucking PROBLEM!" shouted DJ, startling Cody. He had never heard DJ shout and curse like that; nor had anyone else, really. "The... the problem! The problem is that... this place is so wonderful." He got up and looked around. "Do I wanna go home, or do I wanna _live _here?"

Cody's jaw dropped; he wasn't sure what to say.

"Uh, I... I don't know." said Cody.

DJ did nothing but gaze upon the place he felt that he would eventually end up calling his home, as Cody sneaked away from him, feeling rather awkward. When he reached Trent, Tyler and Justin, Justin looked at him.

"Hey, what were you guys screaming about back there?" he said

"Something's really weird about DJ. He clearly wants to go home, but he _also_ says he wants to stay here! Why?"

Justin shrugged.

"I dunno." he said.

"Well, it's not like there's anything wrong with the place." said Tyler.

"Huh?" said Justin. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, uh... I don't know. I just... I just like it here, is all."

Trent and Justin exchanged glances.

"Um... Whatever you say, bro." said Trent.

He got up and walked over to Cody; he put his right arm around Cody's shoulder and pulled him close. He also moved his head closer to Cody's, to be certain only he could hear him.

"I know this sounds crazy, but is this place, like, alive?" Trent whispered. "I mean, is it being nice to us somehow?" Cody merely shrugged, so Trent went on. "I gotta say, I feel unexpectedly good too! It's almost like... like-" Cody had to stop him there.

"Would you listen to yourselves?" he yelled. "'The place is alive', 'It's just being nice to us', where do you come _up_ with this crap." He started walking away from them.

"Where are you going, man?" said Trent.

"I just need some time alone." said Cody, angrily. "Maybe try to figure out how you guys can focus on _anything_ other than to find a way out of this damn place!"

He then marched off, as Trent looked after him and sighed. Trent then walked back to the tree and sat down next to Justin and Tyler. Justin gave him a nudge.

"Hey, what's up _his_ ass?" he said.

"He's apparently mad that we're trying to make the best of things right now." replied Trent. "What does he want to us to do? Build a rocket and_ fly_ home?"

Justin chuckled. "Yeah, probably."

Trent said nothing more, but he thought that perhaps things weren't all that great at the moment, after all. There was in fact something that he was missing – Gwen. How exactly was he supposed to reach her with that bizarre wall keeping them apart? How soon would he get to hold her again? What was he going to do without her?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall, most of the girls were still napping, but Courtney woke up to Izzy chewing on some of the tall grass.

"Um, Izzy?" said Courtney.

"Oh hey, Courtney!" said Izzy. "You should totally try this stuff. It'll keep ya going!"

"What are you – cattle?" said Courtney.

"No, I'm hungry!"

Courtney sighed and decided to do a facepalm

Heather had been sleeping on one of the thick branches of the big tree and was still doing so. Eva was sitting on the branch next to hers, trying to poke her with a smaller branch she had broken off the tree. The poking did not wake Heather up, but Eva eventually gave her a hard enough poke to make her fall off the branch and wake up as she hit the ground. As Heather looked around in confusion, Eva laughed loudly.

"_Very_ funny, you... you... UGH!" was all Heather had to yell at her, upon realizing what had happened.

"Hey, there's a bright side to this, you know!" Eva yelled back. "This is the best way to keep me happy. I _know_ you like me best when I'm happy!"

"She has a point, Heather." said Beth, who walked up to Heather just then. After groaning, Heather replied:

"Great!"

"My God," said Eva, "is everyone else _still_ asleep?"

This question made Beth and Heather look around to see if anyone else was on their feet at this moment. Well, yes – Katie and Sadie were both up, talking just as they used to, but they were unusually unhappy, and Courtney was also awake, watching as Izzy made the grass her breakfast. Still napping were Gwen, Sierra, Lindsay, LeShawna and Bridgette. Bridgette had only gone to sleep because she had faith that a dream would make her feel better.

The dream she was having, however, was not the beautiful kind of dream she usually had, but rather a long and bizarre story of a French scientist, named Sergé. Sergé was unbelievably smart and gifted; so gifted in fact that he could make inanimate objects feel emotion and pain. Indeed, he knew much more than his fellow men of science, and he knew that he did, so one day, when talking in front of a wide audience about one of his latest inventions, he started yelling at his superiors and his colleagues because they failed to see what he saw, calling them "silly" and "small-minded".

Some things Bridgette didn't quite get, such as when Sergé yelled that they should let "them" go free. As soon as he had yelled this, Bridgette got sucked out of this weird dream, waking up where she had fallen asleep: by a tree on a gigantic, unknown field. It was kind of funny how it still felt as if she was in a weird dream. She sighed and rested her head on LeShawna's shoulder; she too had woken up.

"Mornin' girl." she said. "What's the news?"

Bridgette rolled her eyes.

"Well," she angrily replied, "the grass is still tall and brown, there's still a light breeze, there are still mountains surrounding the whole area, there _still_ seems to be no hope for us."

"Well, good to hear from you too, miss sunshine!" said LeShawna.

"I- I'm sorry, it's just..." said Bridgette, calmer this time. "It's just that... I don't know. I_ like_ nature but I don't like being lost outside and... and stuff."

LeShawna but her arm around Bridgette.

"Don't worry about it, girl. We're all here for you, okay?" she said. "We're not planning on staying here much longer." Heather had been overhearing this conversation.

"Ah, okay." she said. "And just how the hell do you suggest we get out of here? Maybe go over those mountains and risk freezing to death, or build a spacehip out of this huge tree, or dig a hole through the planet and hope that we come home?"

"Hey Bridgette!" yelled Eva, still sitting up in the tree. "Don't mind her! She gets a little bitchy when she hasn't had any make-up on for over 5 hours!"

"Why you little..." shouted Heather, but then couldn't think of a word to finish her sentence with, so she merely grunted loudly.

LeShawna laughed.

"Look," she then said to Bridgette, "first of all, there ain't no scary animals here, just us. Okay?" Bridgette nodded. "Second, you don't like being alone out in the wild, but the fact is that you got us by your side."

Bridgette got on her feet, leaving LeShawna to sit by the tree alone.

"Yeah, I know." she said; she then started walking away. "I just wish I could have _Geoff_ by my side."

LeShawna also got on her feet and heaved a silent sigh.

"I know the feeling, Bridge." she mumbled, not caring wether or not anyone was actually listening. "I_ know_ the feeling!" Of course she was thinking of Harold.

Meanwhile, Harold was scouting the field with Duncan, Geoff, Owen and Noah. Despite having walked for a long time, the mountains were still far away.

"Okay, um, my turn!" said Geoff. "I spy with my little eye, something big and pointy."

"A mountain?" said Owen.

"Right again!" said Geoff. "Man, you're _great_ at this!"

"I assume no one has found anything interesting yet?" said Noah, slightly irritated; this game they were playing had been going on for quite a while now, after all.

"God!" yelled a furious Harold, stomping the ground. "There has to be something here!"

"Really?" said Noah. "And just how do you know this, hm? How do we know that this is a place where there has to be _something_? How do we know for a fact that it would be logical if there was _something _here? We don't have any clue where we are so I don't see why there necessarily has to..."

"Th- thanks, dude, we get it." said Duncan.

Owen was panting exhaustedly.

"Have we... reached that forest yet?" he said.

"I'm pretty sure we're halfway there now." replied Duncan.

"Ugh!" grunted Owen. "I'm going back to our tree, dudes!"

Owen turned around and started walking back to the big tree by the light-wall, which they were now calling their 'base'. Harold, Noah, Geoff and Duncan kept walking in the direction they had been heading, towards the forest that surrounded the gigantic field along with the chain of mountains.

"So, um," said Harold, after a while, "you miss Courtney?"

Duncan looked at him, appearing sad, but keeping all his emotions inside.

"Yeah." he replied, sighing at the same time. "I mean, I saw her not so long ago, but... y'know, I wanna hold her again and stuff."

"I know what you mean." said Harold, moving a little closer to Duncan so that they could continue their conversation. "I myself would give all my _Star Wars_-books to have LeShawna in my arms right now!"

As Duncan scoffed, Geoff also moved closer to the two, wanting to join their conversation.

"Hey Harold," he said, "how come you're so into all this sci-fi stuff?"

Harold stroked his goatee, thinking back for a while; he had never been asked such a quesion before.

"Well," he eventually replied, "I guess it had alot to do with my dad. He's always believed in aliens, parallel dimensions and stuff, so he kinda made me and also my siblings grow up with movies and kids shows about those things, because _he_ wouldn't watch much else." Geoff chuckled. "Needless to say, my dad has always been a little loony." finished Harold.

"Well, he sounds alot more fun than my dad." said Duncan. "I go out and have fun and he's just being a total dick about it!"

"Hey, I saw that video on the _Total Drama_-site!" said Geoff. "I totally would have bought one of his wigs as a pet, dude."

Duncan burst out laughing.

"Oh man!" he said. "That was awesome! One of my friend actually bought one!" Harold and Geoff joined in on the laughing; Noah remained silent. Soon enough, Duncan continued: "What's your dad like, Geoff?"

"Who do _you_ think taught me and my brothers to shatter glass through burping?" said Geoff.

"Man, how come _I_ had to get the boring father?" Duncan said and crossed his arms.

"Haha! I don't know, dude!" replied Geoff. "What about you, Noah?"

Noah had been walking behind the three in silence up until this moment.

"Huh?" he said.

"What about_ your_ dad?" said Geoff.

Noah shrugged. "Nothing to say. Nothing of any importance."

"Oh, _come on_!" whined Duncan.

"Yeah, dude, _come on_!" said Geoff.

"Look, I'd rather not, okay?" said Noah, sounding a lot angrier now.

"Jeez, guy! Fine." said Duncan, rolling his eyes.

They were all quiet for a while; just kept heading towards the forest. After a few minutes of silence, however, Geoff spoke up.

"I hope I'll see him again, though." he said.

This put them all in a bad mood; they all had a feeling that they may actually not find a way to get home, no matter how hard they look, and thus would probably never see their families again. It was highly probable that they would turn out to be stuck in this place for the rest of their lives, without even being able to properly say goodbye to their friends and family at home. By then, they felt that they_ really_ needed to figure out where the hell they were!

Meanwhile, Owen and Cody met each other as Owen was heading back towards the big tree, and Cody was going out for a walk; he was still a tad upset about earlier. The two stopped as they got close to one another.

"Hey, buddy." said Owen. "What's the matter?"

"I want to know where the hell I am!" replied Cody. "But some of the others are apparently _enjoying_ themselves here."

"Well, thats okay, then." said Owen. "I myself _can't_ enjoy myself without something to eat! Man, I would _kill_ for some food right now!"

Cody sighed.

"Well, at least you're concerned about _something _important!" he said and continued his walk.

"Later, buddy." said Owen; Cody did not respond.

Owen just shrugged before moving on towards their 'base'. He almost couldn't concentrate on where he was putting his feet, as the image of a big, juicy cheeseburger kept appearing before his eyes, refusing to go elsewhere. He tried to mentally tell the image that it could go anywhere else on his body, and not necessarily in front of his eyes; right now he needed to focus on where he was going. Not an easy task, at this point.

* * *

_The Past_

Ben was standing in the living room, holding a phone to his right ear, as José stood up in stairs, watching and listening to him. José had said to his step-grandfather that he was going to bed, which he was indeed going to do, but not before hearing the latest news about his little brother Alejandro.

"So they haven't found anything?" said Ben, looking upset. He sighed whilst listening to what the caller – his son – had to say. "Okay... okay... No, no, he's not, um... I'll make sure he gets some sleep, alright? Okay, bye."

He hung up and looked at José. Ben sighed once again and shook his head; he then walked up the stairs to talk to José.

"Look," he said, putting his left hand on José's right shoulder, "I'm really sorry, but... but..."

Before Ben could finish, the doorbell rang. Ben turned around and walked back down the stairs to answer it. José followed him down, though not all the way to the front door. Ben opened it and looked down; José could see how his jaw dropped and his eyes widened.

"My God!" he whispered; he then called at his wife. "Liv! Liv, call our son, would you? I've got- I've got _great_ news!"

José kept looking on in confusion. Ben bended over, as if he was going to lift something off the porch. The door moved a little; José could now see exactly who was out there, and also whom Ben was lifting up – Alejandro. By now, José looked, and felt, like he had just seen a ghost.

* * *

**END OF CHAPTER**

**…**

**Because I'm a big fan of Neal Stephenson's **_**Cryptonomicon**_**, expect**

**me to keep jumping between these storylines for **

**more chapters to come.**

**I'm rather fond of the so-called**_** Two Lines No Waiting-**_**trope.**

**If you don't like it... Sorry.**

**…**

**Well, let me know what you think so far, there's a good chap. ;)**


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